Friedrich Nietzsche

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."

"There are no facts, only interpretations."

"There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth."

"In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him."

"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses."

"Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?"

"Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow."

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude."

"We have art in order not to die of the truth."

"You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause."

"Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies."

"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication."

"All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?"

"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy."

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

"A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love."

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."

"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."

"Art is the proper task of life."

"Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman."

"Faith: not wanting to know what is true."

"Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend."

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?"

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

"He who laughs best today, will also laughs last."

"I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage."

"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."

"In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad."

"In music the passions enjoy themselves."

"It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies."

"Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species."

"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

"Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day."

"Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly."

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

"The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'"

"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy."

"The doer alone learneth."

"The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities."

"The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!"

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

"There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religion."

"War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives."

"We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving."

"When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one."

"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."

"Whoever does not have a good father should procure one."